I tried it with a D800 on an ocean coast with 10-15 knot winds, everything tied down, bracket replaced with RRS and nodal, Gigapan on Gitzo 5 series, mounted directly. MUP, and 2 second delays between exposures as well as MUP. I also had the rigid setting "on".

There is so much play up/down/fore aft between the rotating motorized base and the unit itself that even touching causes a few seconds of vibration. Emailed GP (no phone number), and they asked for a video. In the video, just for ease, I had an RRS plate mounted to the tripod directly and the Epic Pro with the RRS dovetail on the plate. This part is super solid, but they claim this is the issue. BTW, the reason I put this clamp on was that screwing and unscrewing the GP head directly on the tripod torques against the motor, which I would think is not such a bright idea. Regardless, I used the unit directly mounted on the tripod in the shoot in question.

The rig was relatively light - D800 + Coastal Optics 60mm (maybe 500-700g).Exposure was in the 6-12s range for various series. Images were unusable. A complete waste of an evening's worth of shooting. The motion blur is so bad that some images look like double exposures.

Has anyone used this in any sort of wind -- not a typhoon, just normal ocean winds in the 10-15mph range with long exposures?

Here's the video I sent as asked. At some point I show the play in the unit.

Response from GP...or so I hate BS! You can see clearly where the play is in the video."I had our technician view your video and he said all your settings are correct, but to eliminate the Arca mount between the Pro and tripod. There could be more stability mounting unit directly on to tripod. He did not find anything faulty about this unit.Any further assistance we can provide, please let me know."

I did have plans to use the DF/IQ180 and Arca/IQ180 (manual mode) on this, but I'm not sure this would even be possible outdoors. perhaps the Roundshot VR is the answer, should have gone with my first instinct.

There is so much play up/down/fore aft between the rotating motorized base and the unit itself that even touching causes a few seconds of vibration.

Hi Jag,

From your video, it's abundantly clear that it's the play between the horizontal rotation part and the rest of the device, that is causing your issues. Nothing to do with your mounting clamp, how could it even because that's metal on metal.

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Emailed GP (no phone number), and they asked for a video. In the video, just for ease, I had an RRS plate mounted to the tripod directly and the Epic Pro with the RRS dovetail on the plate. This part is super solid, but they claim this is the issue.

The video clearly shows it is not.

Quote

Response from GP...or so I hate BS! You can see clearly where the play is in the video."I had our technician view your video and he said all your settings are correct, but to eliminate the Arca mount between the Pro and tripod. There could be more stability mounting unit directly on to tripod. He did not find anything faulty about this unit.Any further assistance we can provide, please let me know."

I agree that that is a BS answer. I don't have a solution for their lack of construction sturdiness, sorry.